He Who Played God
by Zimithrus1
Summary: Cloud Strife was not born, but scientifically created by Hojo to recieve the rank of head scientist. He was an experiment that the scientist deemed a failure because of his undeveloped eyesight. For fear of his failure being known, he kept him locked up in his lab, saying how the world outside was a terrible and horrifying place. Until a certian ravenette SOLDIER says otherwise...
1. Prolouge

_Well, well! Another new story is out! This is actually a pretty dark and deep story for me to be honest. ^^; The idea for this story actually came from a dream I had awhile back ago, and I figured out how to turn it into what it is now!-ahem- anyhow, I hope you enjoy this story and the many roads it will travel in the future. Let's get started!  
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_~Prolouge~_

Hojo and Hollander were standing in front of the president of Shinra. Both scientists were glaring at each other, even though Hojo looked more smug about it.

"Gentlemen." Shinra said, interrupting the tension between the two rivals.

They looked up at the president, and waited for him to continue. Today, they would find out which one of them made head scientist for Shinra, and which one would go. They had been preparing for this moment for about a year or two. Both of them ready to laugh when the other was sent packing.

"As you know...Shinra is in need of a lead scientist, and before me, I have two very bright young candidates for this position. Last time we met, I said I would have a decision by now...But I do not..." The president began.

Both of the men adopted looks of hidden surprise, and disappointment to watch the other leave.

"Both of you are good at what you do, perhaps even too good. So I've decided to give you a final assessment. I want you both to come up with new groundbreaking ideas. Your previous ideas were astounding. Hollander, creating the type of ultimate SOLDIER, and Hojo, the one to find out how to use Mako on our SOLDIER program to enhance their abilities..." The president continued.

He stood up from his chair and circled around to stand in front of his desk. He looked at the both of them as he paused in his speech. The two scientists stared back at him, waiting to see what else he would say.

"Your objective is to come up with something even better than you already have." The president finished up.

"What? But sir-" Hollander began.

"Oh? What's the matter? Already out of ideas dumbapple lover?" Hojo teased, a sneer spreading across his defined face. His oily black hair falling in front of his think framed glasses.

"Shut up you! I do have an idea in fact!" The older scientist spat.

"Go on...Let's hear it." Hojo urged.

"Oh yeah? I bet you don't even have an idea at all!" Hollander scoffed, as if to avoid the question asked of him.

"As a matter of fact I do. now quit stalling and tell us. I'll tell you mine afterwards, since mine is more groundbreaking than yours could ever be." Hojo grinned with a malicious intent.

"Fine! I was planning to keep this a surprise, but I've found out how to clone a fully functional SOLDIER." Hollander shot, a smug smile spreading across his face like a wildfire spreads across a dry plain in the summer.

Hojo was momentarily shocked at the near brilliant idea that came out of Hollander's stupid mind, but he replaced it with a look of sheer confidence with his own idea.

"Get to it...What's YOUR brilliant idea?" The older scientist smirked, thinking he had won the president over, whom was marveling in the idea of SOLDIER replication, yet he stopped fantisizing, and returned back to reality to head the younger scientist's idea.

"I will attempt something that no man has ever attempted before. I will insult mother nature herself..." Hojo began, building suspense as an air of pride began to inflate his lungs like a hot air balloon.

The two waited, the president on edge, and Hollander, awaiting the feeble idea that could never best his in a million years.

"I will scientifically create a living human being." He finally said.

Hollander looked to have nearly choked on his spit. As the president became near appalled and shocked.

"Are you crazy? You really are stupid! That will never happen!" Hollander shot, laughing with a heavy heartfelt laughter that echoed across the large room.

"It is...Very unlikely." The president halfheartedly agreed.

"Just you wait. I'll do it." Hojo promised.

There was a stiff silence floating in the air, before the president finally spoke up.

"Both ideas seem very plausible. I'll give you some time to work and perfect them. I'll check up on your projects twice a year, for about two years. You better get started, I'm not a patient man." The president said.

The two scientists nodded, then headed to the elevators, each taking it to their own lab. Hojo's was on sixty-six and sixty-seven, while Hollanders was on sixty-eight and sixty-nine. Hojo was the last to disembark from the elevator. Upon arriving at his lab, he was greeted by two of his collueges.

"How did it go?" The male one asked.

"It went fine Memphis." Hojo stated quickly, seeming to be in some mental race with himself.

"What's out next project?" The female one asked, seeing that gleam in Hojo's eyes, and knowing it all to well.

"This one will require a lot of work you two...But I'm going to scientifically create a human life." He said, as a big sadistic smirk pulled at his pale lips.

The two went equally shocked for a moment.

"Do not stand there with your mouths agape! Lucrecia, I need you to gather some elements for me. Memphis, I need you to collect some worthy tissue, bone, and muscle samples from willing participants." Hojo ordered, pointing both of them in two different directions.

"Yes sir!" The two exclaimed, hurrying about to get their tasks done.

Hojo retreated to his office and got onto the computer. "Let's see...I do believe I have the chemical make up of the human body on here somewhere..." He muttered to himself, browsing through some old files.

He had thought about this idea a few years back and did research on what elements humans were composed of, but he abandoned it when he figured out about Mako usage and Jenova cells. Guess now was as good time as ever to bring it back up and re-perfect what needed to be fixed in his old formulas. He opened a folder with the right files in it and browsed through, spotting and correcting any errors, or fixing any equations left unsolved from his new knowledge. He figured out he had tons of gaps in his research that he could fill up now.  
Good thing he didn't try this experiment the few years prior to now. Lucrecia was the first to return with the needed elements for the experiment.

"What are we going to do with these Hojo?" She asked as she peeked into his office. "We combine them, then when Memphis gets back, we add the muscle, tissue, and bone samples to it as well...After that We'll put it in a specialized test tube, similar to the cloning process we used once before, and see what goes from there." Hojo explained.

Upon finishing his explanation, Memphis returned with the samples, and the three began to prepare the procedure. Hojo was sure and confident that this would be a success. After all, it was comprised of simple ingredients and equations anyways. How hard could it be for a genius like him?  
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A/N: Hey all! Sorry the prologue's so short, but it's basically in introduction to the story, showing how everything all started, anyhow, If you like it, are eager for the next chapter, or have some questions to ask, please drop a review. They are my bread and butter after all :)

Until the next chapter my good fair readers~!


	2. Chapter 1

_Alrighty, chapter 1 of this story! The prologue doesn't really count, does it? *nervous laughter* Anyhow, I appreciate all the feedback I've gotten on this story so far, and I thank all of you. Let's get started! :)  
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_~Chapter 1~_

"You are a very special child, Cloud. Hojo is only concerned for your safety is all." The tender voice of Lucrecia spoke.

The three year old blonde shook his head, and he looked down at the lab floor.

Two years prior to this moment, Hojo had bested Hollander in title for 'Head Scientist' because of his experiment to create a human life. Cloud was only four weeks old at that time, and Hojo deemed his experiment to be a complete success. But as the baby grew older, he noticed something horribly wrong. He was always toddling around with outstretched arms in front of him, and he would run into things very often.  
Upon inspecting his experiment's eyes, he noticed the glaze over them, he feared that his precious test subject was blind.

He ran some tests to find that he was not blind, but his eyesight was undeveloped. Hojo found out that The blonde toddler could only see in tones of grey, and could not see anything that was four feet away from him, hence why he always walked around with outstretched arms. Usually, all babies can't see far, or only in colors of grey, but as they grow, their eyesight develops, allowing them to see further away, and see in color. Cloud's eyes did not do that, and they remained that way.

Upon discovering this, Hojo went a little paranoid and deemed his experiment as a failure for his lack of proper vision. He was so frightened about someone, Hollander in general, seeing his experiment walked around like a little freak, that he kept him in the labs at all times, never allowed to leave.  
Even if he did leave, he wouldn't be able to see that well anyway. As Cloud turned two, he became curious about the world outside the lab doors, and even asked if he could go outside.

To keep the failure from leaving, Hojo began to tell him scary stories about the outside world, like monsters with big long teeth, people that use you, and abuse you, and all people are cruel and evil. Also, that the world was colorless and dull, filled with violence down every turn. This curbed the boy's curiosity, and never once did he ask to go outside again. He remained in the labs, only getting human interaction from Memphis and Lucrecia.  
Hojo never gave him affection, but only told him horror stories about the world Cloud believed to be scary.

The scientist would always say the same thing afterwards 'I'm doing this to protect you'.

Hojo went so far as to keep the boy from looking out any windows, or interacting with anyone other than Memphis or Lucrecia, if others were to enter the lab. Hojo was pleased whenever others that came into the lab, they would scare him, and he would remain silent, huddled up in a corner. Lucrecia thought that treating Cloud this way was unethical, but she dare not protest against Hojo and his plans.

She placed her finger under his chin and lifted his head up slowly. She was about to speak, until Hojo walked in through the labs loudly, causing Cloud to squeak, then run with outstretched arms in a random direction, trying to find a place to hide. He only ended up smacking into a wall and falling onto his rear. he didn't even see the wall in front of him.  
When he turned around, everything was being swallowed in grey and black, and everything was all fuzzy. Cloud hated his eyesight and he wondered why it was so bad, and why did it have to happen to him?

He didn't see Lucrecia until she was four feet in front of him. He looked up, trying to find her face in the fuzzy blackness. He squinted his eyes, trying his best to see the picture beyond what he could see, he just knew it was there. Lucrecia bent down and crouched on the floor, her face now visible to him.

"Are you alright Cloud? Hojo didn't mean to scare you." She said, picking him up and standing back up fully.

"Lucrecia, how many times have I told you to not pick Failure up?" Hojo reminded, his eyes narrowing at her.

"But he can't see anything-"

"He'll just get attached to affection like a mosquito is attached to blood...So put Failure down." The man interrupted.

Lucrecia heaved a heavy sigh and put Cloud back on the floor. Her face was immediately swallowed up in the fuzzy black in the blonde boy's undeveloped eyes.

"Where go?" Cloud asked when Lucrecia stepped out of his small field of vision, which was only five feet away from him.

His ears twitched, trying to locate the woman he saw as a mother. To make up for his bad eyesight, he used his hearing and sense of touch to locate things. But with bad vision, he really couldn't even tell what he would be touching, unless he already knew what that object or person was.

"Cresa, where go?" He asked again.

Even for a three year old, his speech was not good, another quality that Hojo saw as a failure. The lab doors opened up again, and Cloud squeaked. He closed his eyes shut and curled himself up into a little ball. He did not open his eyes until he felt a hand ruffle his hair. Memphis was crouched in front of him.

"Heya kiddo." He greeted.

"Memfy!" Cloud exclaimed, pointing to him.

But his eyes drooped when Memphis walked away into that fuzzy black like Lucrecia did before him. He let his hand drop to the floor and he looked down in what seemed to be defeat. He hated not being picked up and held, he hated the short greetings he was given, he hated the tests that Hojo performed on him, he hated his eyesight, and most of all...He hated being alone, because before he knew it, the lab was quiet and desolate of any life.  
He pulled his knees up to his chest and embraced them with his scrawny little arms. He hated his life already and he always wondered why we was even existing.

"Come back...Peas?" Cloud asked into the silence, and the darkness. He looked up when he heard someone enter the lab, and he grew frightened.

"Hey quacks! Got some reports you need to fill out!" A new voice spoke.

Cloud grew very frightened. He had never heard this voice before. He heard heavy footsteps coming his way. Panic was racing through his blood. He couldn't see who this mystery man was yet, and it was scaring him.

"Hmm...Guess they aren't here." The voice said. Then Cloud heard another pair of footsteps. Small quick ones.

"Daddy! Daddy! I saw so many awesome things!" A young childish voice cried in enthusiasm.

"Did you now?" The older one asked.

"Yeah! I saw-" The child voice was cut off abruptly, and those quick footsteps approached Cloud.

The blonde looked up, seeing a black blur coming at him, coming into focus. It was a small boy. Hair was black, but Cloud didn't know what color his eyes were. To him, the boy was covered in black, grey, and white. Everything past the boy was just that fuzzy darkness.

"Heya! I've never seen you around here before! Who are you?" He asked while smiling.

Cloud began to scoot himself away. Hojo's stories about mean and scary people flooded into his mind. He whimpered and got up onto his feet.

"What's wrong?" The black haired boy asked.

Cloud only threw his hands out in front of him and began to shakily run. He couldn't see anything except the floor under his feet, and a few objects on either side of him. He did not see the large set of equipment until it was too late. He crashed into it, and sent it all tumbling down. Cloud squeaked and covered his head as glass rained down on him.

"Hey! Are you okay?" The boy asked, running up to him. He was confused. Why did the younger child run so awkwardly, and how could he not have seen that large piece of equipment when it was right in front of him?

"What is the meaning of this?" A shrill voice cried out. Everyone turned to look. Cloud recognized that voice though. It was Hojo.

"What are you two doing in here? This is a restricted area!" He cried, stepping into his lab to find Cloud in plain sight, shards of glass coating his clothed body, and his glass equipment in rambles.

"Sorry sir...But you needed to sign some-"

"I don't give a damn! You are not allowed to enter this place unless directed to!" Hojo growled. The black haired boy retreated back to his father's side.

"Now scram! Because of you, I have a mess to clean." Hojo ordered.

"Come on Zack, we better do as he says." The father said. Zack nodded, and the two left.

Hojo shut and locked the lab doors, then hurried over to where Cloud was. He brushed the glass off his back and stood him up on his feet.

"What did I tell you? Outsiders are scary mean people." The scientist said. Cloud started bawling as he pressed himself against Hojo.

"Scaw'd, scaw'd!" Cloud cried out, only to get a light pat on his head.

"This is why Outsiders are never allowed in here, and why you are never allowed out there. They'll just try to hurt you." Hojo told him. The three year old nodded and pulled himself away from Hojo.

"I ne'er go outs'wide! I pomis'!" He exclaimed as he wiped away his tears.

"What an obediant little Failure you are..." Hojo smirked.  
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A/N: Oh my god! This chapter took longer than the norm to write! DX Of course, having terrible allergies doesn't help either. At times, I stopped writing because of my headaches, Yesterday I had to stuff a tissue up my nose to keep it from running, and it's stuffy at the same time, yee-haw... *Sarcasm* I got the same symptoms since yesterday, and I almost couldn't write this chapter,

Well, enough of the sick stories for one day. Don't forget to drop a review, they really make my day :)

-Ciao!


	3. Chapter 2

_Well, well! Hello everyone! Been awhile hasn't it? :o Sorry, life has kept me very busy all of a sudden, what with my first job, and trying to keep hold of friends I'm afraid I might loose because of jealousy, Anyhow! You came here for an upate, not my life story, so let's get started :) By the way, there are a lot of F words in here, just warning you.  
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_~XChapter: 2X~_

Cloud stared out the one window in the lab. He was growling softly to himself and clentching his fists. Sure, he was fifteen now, but that didn't change much. His vision had hardly changed. He could now see the grand total of twelve feet away from him, and develop some tones of sepia with his black and white vision. It still didn't answer his questions of what exactly colors were. Like the color of blood.  
He was most interested in that particular color because he inflicted injuries to himself just to see the thick substance drip from his arms and wrists, which were covered in wristbands and a tattered jacket that he never removed.

He couldn't see much out of that window anyway. Just a few people passing by. It was a one way window, looking out only into the science floor's hallway. He hated people. Especially the people he had grown up with. Hojo, Lucrecia, and Memphis. As he grew, the further away they got. Not to mention a few other experiments of Hojo's had their attention. Like the ten year old with perfect vision named Sephiroth.  
He was always doted on, and Cloud was left to be locked up in his 'room' with nothing but the one way window, and plenty of glass handy for inflicting self harm. He didn't even have a bed. Just a mattress on the floor with a flat pillow and one sheet.

Cloud still stood, staring out that window. The employee's on the other side had no idea that he was behind it, glaring at them, and hating them. No longer was he scared of people, but he hated them. The only thing he was scared of, was the world outside the lab. He had never seen a tree or a playground in his life. Not even in books. He didn't even know how to read for Gaia's sake. Some life. Raised and fed on fear.

A process of memorize, and regurgitate.

Cloud heard knocking on his door. Rapid little knocks. He instantly knew who it was.

"Fuck off!" Cloud shouted from behind the closed door.

He got his mouth from Memphis when he was only eight years old. The knocking continued. The blonde teen growled and clumsily made his way to the door. He swung it open, please when he heard the swing connect to the small silverette's side.

"What do you want? You know the professor will blow a fucking brain vessel if he sees me talking to you, and vice versa." Cloud shot sharply. Not in the mood for the 'innocent' little child today.

"Oh, but...No one is here and I'm lonely...Can you keep me company?" Sephiroth asked, clearly using a mocking tone.

Cloud felt rage swelling inside of him. "Excuse me?" The blonde growled, stepping out of the confinement of his room even further.

"I'm lonely." The child repeated, just as smug, with that stupid smile on his face.

"And you expect ME to keep you company? Listen here Snotface, I'll have you know when I was your age I had to deal with my loneliness and cry about it in a fucking corner! No one was there to keep me company! Why should somebody be there to keep YOU company?" Cloud growled, his voice rising in anger with each spoken sentence.

The small child's eyes just hardened in anger, before it was replaced with a smug smile. "Because...I'm better than you and demand more attention than you. After all, you know Hojo only wants the best for ME. And if I demand something, I GET it. So I demand company." Sephiroth shot, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Why don't you get lost before I fucking hurt you?" Cloud threatened, leaving the room completely, his eyes firm and hardened.

The door to the lab swung open, and Cloud flinched and quickly blinked. The responce he had been giving to every opened door since childhood.

"I see you're still a coward to the world outside. Scardycat." Sephiroth mused, his eyes playfully twinkling.

"You better run brat!" Cloud cried, running at the silver haired child.

The ten year old squeaked, developed a look of fear, then ran crying to whoever opened the lab door. Cloud chased him as best as he could before the brat sidestepped out of his limited field of vision. Cloud tried to stop, but stumbled and hit the floor face first. He groaned and quickly sat up, only to find himself staring up at Hojo, with Sephiroth hiding behind the man's lab coat.

"I see someone decided to leave their room today." The scientist sarcastically remarked.

Sephiroth tugged at the man's coat, drawing his attention. "Failure hit me with the door...I just wanted to talk to someone and he swings his door open and smacks me in the face with it!" The child whined.

"Gaiadamn it! I have a fucking name!" Cloud shouted, clentching his fists.

"Yeah. It's Failure." The child shot, his eyes holding a smug little look in them.

The blonde found himself growling. He was so sick of this. Sick of people, sick of everything. But what could he do about it?

"Failure, back to your room." Hojo ordered.

Cloud jumped up to his feet akwardly. Damn his eyesight! "Fuck you." Cloud growled.

The scientist only smirked and pulled a small little remote out of his pocket.

"Did you forget, Failure?" He asked before pressing a button.

Electricity surged throughout Cloud's body, enough to make him twitch and shake. the electricity vanished when the button was released from pressure. How did Cloud forget about the shock collar around his neck?

"Back to your room Failure." Hojo repeated. The blonde gave one final glare, before turning on his heel and hurrying back to his room.

He made sure to slam the door behind him loudly.  
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_A/N: Hey everyone. Sorry this chapter is so unbelievably short, but I just can't do anymore writing tonight. I'm just not feeling the mood right now. I'll try to update a longer chapter for this soon._


	4. Chapter 3

_Guess who's back with chapter three!? :D That's right, I have returned to give you lovely people an update! I figured you guys could use one, now that my writers block is temporarily gone x3 Anyhow, story time!  
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_~X[Chapter: 3]X~_

Cloud was more than tence. He was anxious and antsy. He was starting to get sick of his confinement in the labs. He was scared, but he knew he had to get away. He paced in his room, glancing out the window often. When soneone would walk by, Cloud would watch and see how they reacted to being outside the labs.  
They were so calm and collected, as if the world really wasn't a scary place. Perhaps it was a facade? He knew the world was scary, but why didn't they?

Cloud finally mustered up enough courage to willingly leave the comfort of his room. He slowly opened the door, thankful that steel doors didn't creak, but they were cold as fuck. He closed it slowly and quietly. He knew that it was dark out, so it must be night. He didn't know if it was early night, or late night. He couldn't exactly tell time. He imagined it would help if he knew how to read. If anything, only few letters and words made since to him. But not all of them.

He slowly walked through the labs, hearing nothing but the bubbling of fluids in their containers, and mumbling from Hojo in the other room. Cloud was able to see the door coming into his field of vision, which had actually began to improve a little more since last week. He was quite greatful that he could now see twenty feet away, and all around him. It was much better being able to see things that he knew were there, but couldn't see before, like cobwebs on the ceiling, or buttons on the wall.

Just as he was nearing the door, he wasn't paying attention to the table beside him, and accidentally knocked over a case of beakers, sending them to the floor with multiple loud crashes. He instantly froze in his tracks. He was so close! Just six more feet away from the door! But his hopes of getting out were punctured in the heart when Hojo came rushing out to see the disturbance, along with Snotface-Sephiroth. The two looked at the mess on the floor, but then looked up with intrigued eyes. "This is new, Failure. Going somewhere?" Sephiroth asked with a smug smile.

"So? What's it to you if I am?" Cloud shot back, giving the boy a little snarl.

"You're not going anywhere tonight Failure, it's late, way past your bedtime." Hojo spoke up, his squeaky voice like nails on a chalkboard.

"So?" Cloud questioned, letting the namecalling slide for now. He needed to focus all his courage on leaving right now, not feuding.

"Hmm, starting to get defiant, are we?" The professor mused, with a thin snake like smile consuming the original shape of his already thin and chapped lips.

"Teach him a lesson Professor!" Sephiroth spoke up, sounding quite happy about that.

Cloud glared at the silverette boy, but the brat was unphased.

"I think I might." Hojo said, pulling an empty syringe out of his pocket, along with a vial of light orange liquid.

Cloud instantly paled. He knew what that was. It was a failed syrum that Hojo invented long ago in hopes of curing his bad eyesight. Instead of doing that, it left Cloud blind for three days as a child, and caused slight paralysis. Hojo poured the liquid substance into the syringe and tapped at it a few times.

"I won't tell you again. It's past your bedtime." He said again, only his tone was cold and meanacing. He took slow steps up to Cloud.

"Please, not this!" The blonde teen begged, backing up into the closed door. Freedom was literally right behind him! All he needed to do was turn around, open the door, and run like hell!

"If you don't want this, then I suggest you return to your room." Hojo said, only two feet away from Cloud.

The syringe was right by his jugular vein, hovering dangerously close. Too close for Cloud's taste. Sephiroth was watching with a smug and happy little face. That little bastard was enjoying every moment of this, relishing it. Cloud would not let anyone enjoy his fear like this! Finally gaining enough courage, Cloud smacked the needle away from his neck, and sent the syringe crashing to the floor. While Hojo was stunned, Cloud whiped around, threw open the door, and took off.

"Wait Failure! Get back here!" Sephiroth growled, beginning to chase after him. But Hojo's arm shot out and stopped the boy from further advance. The silverette looked up in confusion, especially at the pleasure on Hojo's face.

"No, let him go. This will be interesting. Why don't we watch his behavior in the outside world?"

0-0- VII -0-0

Cloud fumbled at the end of the hallway and crashed to the ground. He never knew it was so bright out here. He was squinting at the bright flurecent lights hanging above him, giving everything a blinding white aura. Cloud huddled up to the wall and stared at the ground. Even the floors were different out here. This was all so strange. It was a big place in here, even though he knew it was just a small hallway. He knew that there would be bigger rooms after this hall.

He swallowed dryly and tried to calm himself down. He was finally out in the outside world beyond the lab. It was frightening, but Cloud also felt, free, and strangely excited to explore this new world. His eyes started to adjust to the bright lights, and everything was coming into sharper focus, well, what he could see anyway.  
When he became recollected, he slowly stood up, and looked back from where he had escaped. Neither Hojo nor Sephiroth were after him. It was a wonderful feeling, to be free.

He took a deep breath, and continued his adventure down the hall. Now he was more excited to explore. How could the world be such a bad place when it was so exciting? Hojo must have been lying to him all these years. But if that was the case, why would he not let him ever go outside? There had to be a reason.

He looked up to see a sign, displaying some numbers. Cloud didn't understand what the words 'Floor 69' meant. He looked under those words to find more, reading 'Elevator', with a strange looking symbol pointing up. What did that mean? Cloud decided to follow the strange symbol upward, so he continued down the hall. He never knew how bland it was out here. No decorations, just white everywhere.

As he continued walking, he noticed something appearing in his field of vision. Cloud walked a little faster so he could see the whole thing. He paused just five feet away. He gave it a perplexed look. It looked like two huge steel doors, enclosed in steel frames. He noticed the line down the middle of it. He used his finger to trace the line, then looked over to the right. He noticed a small silver object screwed into the wall, right in the middle of the steel doors.

Cloud leaned in to observe what it was. It had two buttons, one with the strange symbol he saw earlier, pointing up. But the one under it was pointing down. Cloud figured out that these symbols told which direction something was, or where it was going. It was an exciting discovery that caused Cloud to smile and laugh. He was starting to piece things together, and he was loving it! It was wonderful to figure things out on his own.

As he ran his hand across the buttons, he realized he could press them, and they weren't just for show. He decided to press the one pointing down. At first, nothing happened, and it upset him a little bit. But then the steel doors on the left slid open from that line in the middle. Cloud jumped when it made a dinging sound. He slowly peered inside to see that it was another room. It was smaller, and shaped like a box.

Cloud slowly stepped inside, and realized the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling had changed again. He guessed that each room within Shinra was different. Another new discovery! He smiled and laughed again as he spun around, looking out into the hallway he had just left. It didn't feel like home anymore. Now it felt like a prison.

"Fuck you Hojo! I'm free now! And I'm not coming back!" Cloud shouted triumphantly.

He looked over at his side to see a longer strip of silver, but this one had more buttons on it. Cloud took a few steps towards it and looked at all the buttons. None of the numbers looked familer to him. He knew what they were, he just didn't know how people understood how they worked.  
Cloud faltered for a bit, before pressing a random button with the strange number '7' printed on it. Then the doors slid closed. Cloud looked back, realizing he was trapped.

Was this one of Hojo's traps to bring him back? Then it felt as if the floor dropped beneith him, and he realized that the room he was in was decending. He grabbed onto one of the rails sticking out of the walls as the room, which he was now going to dub, a MovingBox, continued to decend. He noticed that above the silver panel, was a small screen with the number 69 on it. Then it fell to 68, then 67.  
Then Cloud understood. These numbers cooresponded with the floors within Shinra! Apparently he had been on floor 69, but now he was going tdown to seven.

Cloud no longer feared the MovingBox, but enjoyed the ride. He smiled brightly as the numbers continued to descend. But suddenly, it stopped on floor 28. The doors slid open, and in walked a woman. She was dressed in a long white lab coat, and she had some weird things on her face that Hojo wore, except hers were red and thicker. Her hair was down and slightly curled at the ends, but other than that, he couldn't tell what color her eyes or hair were. But still, he was scared.

Cloud instinctivly backed into a wall when she entered. Could anyone access the MovingBox? It was like a public transportation system! More things began to click into place.

"I've never seen you here before, are you new?" The lady asked, looking in Cloud's eyes.

The blonde remained quiet, but continued to stare at the woman in shock. Cloud knew he was going to encounter people eventually, he just wasn't ready for it now!

"Hey, are you alright? You look pale." She noted, giving him a look of concern.

Cloud blinked. He had never seen someone give him that face before. What did it mean?

"What are you doing with your face?" Cloud decided to ask.

The lady went shocked for a moment, and confusion spead across her face. "What?" She asked back.

"Your face. It looked really sad for a moment." The blonde said, pointing to her.

"I was expressing concern for you. You don't look very well." She replied, still a bit confused. It was if this boy was just born yesterday or something.

"Con...cern? What's concern?" Cloud asked, his eyes alight with curiosity.

"It means I'm worried." She replied, trying to dumb it down for the nieve boy.

Worry, Cloud knew what that meant. So concern was being worried over how someone was doing? Wow, learning new emotions was complicating!

"So, why are you concerned for me?" Cloud asked, cocking his head to the right. "Well just look at yourself sweetie! I've never seen someone as thin as you, or pale, or down right miserable!" She exclaimed, giving him another concerned look.

"What's thin? What's pale?" Cloud asked, getting a confused look.

The woman blinked, but then remembered something. "I want you to come with me." She said, stopping the elevator in its' tracks.

She hit the button labeled as 50 on the panel. So now they were going to floor 50? So they were going to go up right? Cloud's guess whas right when he felt the ground rush back at him and he could feel the MovingBox go up.

"Where are we going? You're not going to take me back to the lab, right? Please don't take me back there!" Cloud sputtered, becoming fearful again.

"Don't worry. I'm not taking you back to the labs." The woman said, eyeing Cloud curiously.

What was with this boy? Regardless, she was going to find out some information from him.

"How old are you?" She asked.

The blonde looked towards her, then looked at the panel, looking for a number. When he found it, he pointed at it. She looked over to see he was pointing to the number fifteen.

"So you're fifteen?" She asked.

"Oh, that's how you pronounce that word!" Cloud said with a bright smile.

Oh yeah. This boy needed professional help.

The elevator stopped moving and its' steel doors opened up. Cloud watched the woman leave the MovingBox and look back at him.

"Come on." She said, gesturing him to follow.

Cloud slowly stepped out of the elevator, and he realized he was in a new room again. This room was bigger, and not as bright as the hallway from earlier. It had more rooms within this one, with doors that were not steel. The steel doors to the Movingbox closed, and Cloud knew the ride was over.

He walked up to the woman's side and looked all around. There were little hallways branching into each room. There were about five rooms here. A few more people were roaming around in the big room, and Cloud nearvously swallowed. His hands instantly gripped the jacket he was wearing.  
All he was wearing was his old navy blue jacket, which was tearing and ripping at the sleeves, and some baggy black pants, that looked ready to slip off of him at any moment. He didn't even have any shoes. He was lucky enough to be in socks with only one hole in the heel of them.

The woman went up to the not steel door, gripped a handle, twisted it down, and the door opened up.

"Come in." She said with a smile.

Cloud knew what a smile was. It meant they were happy. The blonde entered through the door to be in another room. The floor was different again. It was soft and squishy. He looked down to see little shags of the floor rising up. This wasn't tile or linoluim, that was for sure. He sat on his knees and pressed his hands into it. It was soft all around. He ran his hands across the shags, and they moved with his hands.

"What is THIS?" Cloud asked as he layed down and pressed his face to it.

"Honey, that's called carpet." The woman said.

"Car-pet? Wow, it's so soft! This beats the floor in the labs any day!" He exclaimed grabbing one of the shags and pulling on it.

He was shocked when some of the other shags followed upward, causing a slight hill. "Shiva! Your floor comes up!" Cloud said, getting a huge smile on his face.

He looked all around and noticed the whole room was different. The walls were a different tone of grey, indicating it was a lighter color, but not white. There were pictures on the walls, and some very comfortable looking chairs surronding a large wooden table, and ontop of that table lay flimsy papery looking books of some kind.  
He saw that the woman walked passed him and up to a desk. Cloud got back up on his feet, and saw another woman behind the desk. She had a preplexed look on her face when she saw Cloud.

"Mary, when's my next appointment?" The woman asked.

The one called Mary looked through a little book and scanned the rows of scribble. "You have one in twenty minutes actually." She responded.

"Cancel it and tell them to reschedual. I'm taking this one in immediatly." The woman said.

Mary nodded and grabbed a pencil and scratched out the scribble on one of the lines. The woman walked over and grabbed the handle on another door. This one wasn't steel either, but Cloud knew that it was wood, like the table. She opened the door and looked at Cloud. He knew to follow her, so he did.

When he went in through the door, she closed it shut. There was another hallway, and it split into two different rooms on the left and right side, and there was a door right smack down the hall. She led the way towards the door at the end of the small hall.

"In here." She said as she opened up another door.

Cloud entered, and the scenery changed again. The floor was still carpet, as the woman called it, and the walls were still the same, only different pictures were hung on the walls. The woman went up and walked around a large wooden desk. She sat down on a weird looking, yet comfortable looking, chair.  
Across from her side of the desk was a large and weird looking, chair? If Cloud could call it that. It was bigger though, and looked more like a bed. It had some weird square thing on it, it looked to be stuffed and comfy.

"Go ahead and sit down there." The woman said, pointing to the weird Bedchair.

Cloud nodded and sat down on it. His eyes widened tremendously. "This is so comfortable! Way better than my bed in the labs!" He exclaimed.

He picked up the square thing and squished it in his arms. Then he squeezed it tightly and pressed it against his chest. He realized this was a type of pillow. But it was way better than his old one! He flopped down against the Bedchair and let out a relaxed sigh.

"What is this thing?" He asked with closed eyes.

"That would be called a couch." The woman said.

"Oh. I like it!" Cloud said with a happy smile as he continued to hug the small square pillow.

"Anyhow. I had you come with me because I want to talk. You intruiged me, and I just had to hear your backstory." She replied, adjusting her thick red glasses.

Cloud sat up and looked her in the eyes. "What's your name? And why would you want to talk to someone like me?" He asked, not letting go of the pillow.

"Oh how rude of me. My name is Minnie. I wanted to talk with you because it's my job here at Shinra. I'm a phsycologist." Cloud instantly looked confused at the big word that Minnie used.

"To simplify it, I talk with people about their past, and try to help them through it. But for you, I want to find out why you don't know things that you should at your age." She explained.

"Oh." Cloud said, squeezing the pillow again.

"What is your name? I never asked." Minnie said.

"Mine? My name's Cloud." The blonde replied with a smile.

"Okay Cloud. Why have I never seen you around Shinra before? I know everyone in this building, except you." She said, adjusting her glasses again.

"Cause Hojo wants it that way." The blonde said, not looking Minnie in the eyes anymore. His focus went more onto the pillow than anything else right now. He really didn't want to talk about Hojo right now, but he supposed he had no choice.

"Hojo? You mean the professor in charge of the science floor?" She asked.

Cloud nodded and did not say a word.

"Why does he want it that way Cloud?" She asked, deicding to just take of her glasses than constantly adjust them.

"Because I'm a failure." Cloud said, looking back up at her.

"Failure? What do you mean?" She asked, leaning in a little more as that concerned look encased her face again.

"I was a failed experiment. Apparently, Hojo said I landed him the title of head scientist, but I was fucked up, and he didn't want anyone to know about it. See?" Cloud said as he pulled his thick and long hair off his neck. A brand was burned onto it, reading 'Experiment # 486'.

"Have you even looked into a mirror Cloud? Or seen a reflection of yourself?" Minnie asked.

Cloud shook his head no.

"Then how do you know where that brand is?" She directed.

"Because Hojo told me it was there." The blonde said innocently.

Minnie stood up from her desk, and circled around it. Cloud watched as she picked something up from the corner of the room. She carried it over to the couch and set it down.

"Would you like to see what you look like?" She asked.

The blonde blinked and stood up from the couch. He approached the object, to see someone looking back at him. He freaked out and backed up, but the person in the glass did the exact same thing.

"Minnie! Who is that? Why are they copying me?" Cloud cried, becoming frightened.

"Don't be scared Cloud. That's your reflection. This is how you look to others. This is called a mirror. It shows people what they look like." Minnie calmly explained.

The blonde swallowed, and slowly apprached the mirror again. He took a long look at his reflection. He noticed he was extremely frail looking. His hair was thick and long, and ended at his shoulderblades. It was all matted up and tangled. He looked dirty.

"Do you see how small and skinny you are now? For a fifteen year old boy, you should weigh about one hundred and fourty pounds. I doubt you weigh even half that." Minnie said, taking the mirror back and putting it where it went.

She motioned for Cloud to come over to where she was and he obeyed.

"Step here." She directed. It was a metal looking object with a small screen, displaying three zeros.

Cloud stepped on the thing and the numbers blinked three times before displaying a new number. Minnie looked over and sighed.

"I was right. You are seriously underweight. You only way one hundred and two pounds. I bet you're just skin and bone under those clothes." She said.

Cloud stepped off the weird contraption and looked at his arms. He didn't realize how thin he was until he compared himself to Minnie. The woman was pretty small and thin, but Cloud was even smaller and thinner than she was.

"Cloud. May I please take a look under your jacket? I may be just a phsycologist, but I am also a registered nurse." She said.

The blonde nodded and unzipped his jacket. He saw the expression on Minnie's face and he knew she was horrified.

"You poor baby...You really are just skin and bones. I shouldn't be able to see all of your ribs. You look anorexic." She stated.

Cloud looked down at himself. He figured that was normal.

"You need some good nutritious food, a long bath, and a good nights sleep. But it's going to take awhile to get you back to a healthy weight. To be honest, I can't believe someone as malnourished as you is still alive." She said, nearly exhaustedly.

Cloud zipped his jacket back up, his smile had vanished long ago. "Now that I'm out. I don't know where I can go besides back to the labs." He responded, feeling extremely glum that he had to go back.

"I don't think so sweetheart. You're coming back to my housing floor." Minnie said as a matter of factly.

Cloud looked at her with widened eyes. "Really?" He asked.

He was extremely happy when she nodded her head yes.

It seems that Cloud was going to be able to enjoy freedom even longer than he thought.


	5. Chapter 4

_Look who's back with another chapter? Me! :D Well, that's kind of obvious huh? Anyhow, are you guys ready for chapter four of He Who Played God? Well then, let's get started! :)  
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_~X[Chapter: 4]X~_

Minnie looked at the clock in the office. It read eight forty-seven at night. The faint ticking of the hands could be heard as they made their way across the clock in the circle they were forever destined to roam. She caught Cloud staring at the hands of the clock as they moved, his eyes hardly blinking and always staring at the second hand. He seemed hypnotised by their repetitive movement in their constant circles. The boy seemed to be easily distracted by the world around him. Suddenly, she remembered something.

"Cloud, before we go back to my housing quarters, I would like to take you to the infirmary and get you a physical." She spoke, breaking the silence, save the deafening ticking of the analog clock on the wall.

The blonde blinked and snapped out of his daze as he looked towards Minnie. "Physical?" He repeated, cocking his head ever so slightly to the right.

"Yes, I want to check your reflexes and general health." She replied as she walked over to the office door.

Cloud instinctively followed behind like a baby duckling following its' mother. "Okay. Then what?" He asked as the door was opened.

"We'll see from there." She decided to say as she left the office with Cloud following behind.

The blonde continued to look all around in every direction, trying to identify things he had never seen before, even with his limited vision and lack of color. They passed the girl working at the front desk. She was putting files away and taking care of hitting the lights. Cloud figured that this little room was closing, in whatever they had to close for. They left the room, and ended up back in the really big room, with all the other rooms connected.

The blonde had to admit, he was a little nervous at whatever a physical was. What was she planning to do? Hopefully nothing like Hojo's physicals. Those were pure torture. Spending hours strapped to a cold metal table, bound by nothing more than thick rubber bands with only shorts to wear while countless needles injected countless substances into your body. Not to mention the incisions and hours of pain, feeling your organs being fondled inside your body and you can do nothing about it but lay there and be silent.

The horrible memories caused Cloud to tremble in and freeze in place. Maybe Minnie wasn't as nice as she seemed. Maybe all physicals were like that! Hojo was right! People were scary and only wanted to use you! Minnie turned around when she didn't hear the blonde following behind her. She saw Cloud frozen in fear, his eyes widened in fright and staring point blank at the floor while he was hugging his arms tightly. She walked back over to him quickly, concern in her hazel eyes.

"Cloud? What's wrong?" She asked, her voice laced with concern and worry.

"He...Hojo was right...People, they're all the same..." He whimpered. His eyes were glazed over, as if her was blind. What was going through his head right now?

"Cloud, what do you mean?" Minnie asked, placing her hand on his frail shoulder gingerly.

Cloud cried out in fear and backed away from her touch. He was shaking terribly now. He could hardly even stand upright. He was slouched over, as if he had been punched in the gut. His hands shot up and embedded into his thick and matted hair. He let out a disgruntled cry and dug his nails into the flesh on his head.

"Cloud! What's wrong?" Minnie cried, her voice wavering.

What was going on with him? He seemed happy not just five minutes ago! She didn't know if she should try to comfort him, or stand there and stare helplessly. Cloud's frightened blue eyes jumped up and melded with Minnie's.

"Talk to me Cloud." She decided to say. Her voice was heavy like lead, yet tinted with a cautious and shy manner.

"People are all the same! You're all just like Hojo! No one is here to help me! I'm all alone!" He cried.

With that, he sprinted past Minnie towards the doors of the MovingBox. He slapped one of the buttons, he really didn't care, and waited for the doors to crack open. Cloud.

"You're not alone. I want to help you!" Minnie pleaded, near desperation it seemed. The blonde decided the MovingBox was too slow, so he darted towards the door beside it. Strange letters on a sign read that this was the 'Stairwell'. He ignored it and threw the doors open. He saw that the floor divided up roughly and split in two different directions. One going up, and the other going down. There were rails on the right sides of the divisions, in which Cloud dubbed StepFloors. Those must help to keep balance.

The door behind him slammed shut with a loud metallic bang. The isolation was wonderful. All he could hear was the soft humming of an air conditioner somewhere above the StepFloors. From the other side of the door, he could hear the click of Minnie's shoes against the tile, hurriedly approaching the StepFloor place. Without thinking, Cloud hurdled humself at top speed at the StepFloors, taking the ones leading down. He kept going, even after hearing Minnie throw open the door and call out his name.

Cloud kept descending, refusing to let her catch up to him. He smiled to himself when Minnie took the stairs going up. That was the opposite direction he had gone. He continued going down the StepFloors at top speed, fumbling and near falling a couple of times, but the further down he got, the better! He found himself growing tired, and his breaths came out in heavy pants. His throat felt dry and his legs felt like they were going numb.

His vision blurred slightly, which threw him off balance. It caused his foot to slip on the descend, and he fumbled and crashed head first into the wall passed the StepFloors. He knew he hit his head hard because his hearing was replaced by a sharp ringing, and everything else felt as if he was listening to a conversation underwater. Black swam in his eyes more than usual, trying to pull him down into unconsciousness. He sunk to his knees and fell onto his side, breathing heavily. The black was relentless and crawled into more of his blurring vision.

Before he passed out, he saw a big black figure crouch in front of him.

"Are you alright?" Was the last thing he heard before the darkness overcame him.

_-0-0- VII -0-0-_

Cloud's head was pounding fiercely. He inhaled sharply, and it sounded more like an angry hiss instead of a breath. White light was surrounding his vision, but it began to dim dramatically and become more black. He noticed he was laying on something very comfortable. Was it a couch like the one in Minnie's office? He blinked and his vision began to focus. Dark grey surrounded the walls of the place he was in.

He knew Minnie didn't find him, and he wasn't back in Hojo's labs. He was in new and unfamiliar territory. He blinked again and he was able to make out a few objects and decorations on the walls. The pounding in his head softened some to a light and dull throb. He looked over to his left to see someone sitting beside him on a chair. Cloud didn't know much, but he knew a SOLDIER when he saw one. The uniform tended to be a dead give away.

"Welcome back." The man said. His voice was on the husky sounding side, but it was gentle and soft.

"Wh-Where am I? I don't-..." Cloud began, his senses coming back to him and making him aware that he was in a new room.

"Calm down. You hit your head and passed out in the stairwell. I happened to find you laying there unconscious. So, I took you back to my Housing Quarters to recuperate." The man explained, still keeping his voice calm and soft.

"Is this...The SOLDIER housing?" Cloud asked, looking around the room to observe his surroundings.

"It is." The man replied. The blonde's eyes looked back at the mystery man that had picked him up from the 'Stairwell', as he called it.

Then his paranoia about the true nature of people kicked back in and caused his eyes to widen and press his body further into the couch.

"D-Don't hurt me!" Cloud whimpered, balling his hands into tightly clenched fists. The man blinked once, a blank expression on his face. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." The man said, his eyes harboring concern.

"That's what all you people say!" Cloud spat, closing his eyes as if that would somehow transport him away from this person.

Maybe he should have just stayed in the labs after all. Then he wouldn't be freaking out in a SOLDIER's housing quarters. He would be safe from the world, and the people inhabiting it. Maybe Hojo wasn't lying when he said the world was a scary place. Cloud didn't know what to believe anymore. He was so confused right now. He just wanted to close his eyes and hear nothing but silence so he could think things through. But the situation he was in said differently.

"What kind of place have you come from to make you think the way you do?" The man simply said.

Cloud opened his eyes and looked onto the man's. He wasn't trying to calm him down, nor was he trying to pry answers from him. But that one question somehow caused him to stop freaking out.

"Come to think of it, I've never seen you before." He added, his eyes hardening in thought.

"Of course you've never seen me. I've been in the labs my whole life." The blonde bluntly stated, yet his voice was soft.

"Your whole life? You never left once?" The man asked.

Cloud shook his head to agree with the question.

"What's your name?" He asked, blinking once as his tone softened up even more. "Cloud." The blonde replied, his eyes never leaving the mystery man.

"I'm Angeal. Sorry you had to be on the couch, but it was the only thing available." Angeal replied, gesturing to the chocolate brown leather couch.

"It's fine. I like couches." Cloud innocently said.

"How old are you Cloud?" Angeal asked, repositioning himself in the chair to get comfortable.

"Fifteen." The frail blonde replied, snuggling himself into the couch, getting a feel for the cool leather.

"Nearly the same age as him." Angeal said with a soft smile to himself.

Cloud was able to pick up on the soft spoken sentence, but decided to let it go. His eyes went back to roaming around the room. It was well decorated, and the floor was carpet. There was a soft white glow from a lamp in the corner of the room. Across from the couch was a moderately sized coffee table, with a few coasters and small ornaments to accent the piece of furniture. There was a TV across the room on the opposite wall, nicely sized. There was a ceiling fan suspended to the ceiling above, which was currently off. This was a nice and warm looking place. Cloud just felt invited by its' presence.

"I don't mean to interrupt your thoughts, but have you ever been fed or bathed properly?" Angeal said with a near grimace at the blonde's condition.

Cloud shook his head no.

"Well, I suppose we'll have to take care of this won't we? I hope you don't mind another person joining dinner tonight?" The older man said as he stood of from the chair and put it back where it went.

"Uh, no?" The blonde said with a near squeak in his voice. Another person? Up until now, the only people he ever came in contact with were on a one-on-one. Unless it was Hojo and Snotface Sephiroth, but this was a different story!

"Alright then. You're free to the bathroom. Take as much time as you need." Angeal replied with a soft smile.

"Uh, thank you." Cloud said with a nod.

He saw the older man leave his line of sight and disappear into another room. The blonde slowly sat up, pleased when his head was barely hurting him now. He stood up in the same slow fashion. He smiled at the feel of the carpet underneath his feet, and he curled his toes with another soft smile, before he turned on his heel to see where the bathroom was. He approached the room that Angeal had entered, and saw that it split into a hallway.

Cloud peered down the dark hallway before walking slowly into it. It grew a little darker as he continued down, but he soon found the bathroom and entered it. He looked over to see a light switch screwed into the wall near the sink. He reached over and flicked it on, allowing the soft white light to wash over the bathroom and brighten up the room. Cloud was in awe about how luxurious this bathroom was. Back in the labs, they were dark and dirty with mold creeping on the walls. They didn't even have a shower or bathtub. Just a toilet.

The blonde pulled back the cloth shower curtain and blinked at the ceramic monster. This was a first for him. He hadn't had a bath since he was ten. He got one every five years. But after five years, your appearance can really change, and you can even forget the color of your hair. Not that Cloud knew what that was anyway.

He pulled a towel off the rack next to the bath and laid it on the rim of the tub. He then removed what little clothes he had and stepped into the shower, which was also a bathtub, and stared in confusion at the two knobs in front of him. His hand wavered in the air for a brief second as he reached for one. He twisted one of the knobs all the way but nothing happened. He blinked once and saw a little metal piece above the faucet that was sticking out. Cloud pushed it in and instantly, he was assaulted by ice cold water.

Cloud let out a few squeaky screams as he flailed around, not knowing how to turn it off, and within seconds, his hair and skin was saturated. In his panic, he slipped against the slick floor and tumbled right out of the bathtub, knocking the towel over to cover his lower half. The blonde heard slow footsteps, followed by a drawled out yawn.

"Angeal, what's with all the racket?" The voice sleepily asked as a figure paused by the door frame.

Cloud looked up to see a new person standing there. He had spiky raven black hair tossed in wild directions, and if Cloud could have seen the color blue, this person's eyes would have been a radiant sky blue. He looked to be about Cloud's age, maybe a little bit older. The new person's eyes widened when he saw the blonde, crouched on the bathroom floor, completely in the nude with a towel draped over his lower half as water dripped from his thick blonde hair, and rolled off his delicate looking porcelain skin. The man had a deep red blush furiously overcome his face, but somehow he could not turn away.

Cloud squeaked, realizing the situation, and used the towel to cover up the rest of his exposed skin.

"A-Angeal...wh-Why is there a-A blonde k-kid in our sh-shower?" He stammered, finally able to look away from the blonde and towards the kitchen.

"Oh, I found him passed out in the stairs on the way back from the training floor. I took him back here and told him he could bathe here. Now quit gawking and get in here Zack." The voice of Angeal explained and ordered from the kitchen.

The man, now know as Zack, quickly hurried passed the open doorframe and scurried to the kitchen.

Cloud blinked. Why did that name sound familiar? He could have sworn he had heard it before, but he just couldn't recall for some reason. To save from further embarrassment, Cloud jumped back in the shower to continue bathing.

This was certainly turning out to be some crazy night...


	6. Chapter 5

_Hooray! Another chapter of He Who Played God is out and ready for a reading! :D Sadly, it might take awhile for the next chapter to pop up, I'm going back to school, for my final year, in a couple of days :o Anyhow, how about a story?  
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_~X[Chapter: 5]X~_

Cloud had to admit, as soon as he stepped out of the shower and glanced into the mirror, he found his reflection looking even better. He looked clean and well kept, minus the tangles in his matted blonde hair. As Cloud began to clothe himself in his tattered garments, his mind began to wander. How often did normal people bathe? Did they ever have more than one set of clothing? How often did they brush their hair?

He wondered if he could borrow a brush for his hair or something. The blonde only knew what a hairbrush was becuase of Snotfaced Sephiroth. The brat got his hair brushed everyday by Lucrecia. It caused Cloud to snarl at his own reflection, and he suddenly had an urge to break the mirror into pieces. He caught the way his face changed when he displayed his anger, and his face went into shock.  
He took a couple more steps to the mirror, and began making faces at it. He never knew his facial expressions changed when he felt different thoughts or experianced a change in emotions. Another new discovery since he left the labs.

But upon seeing his reflection, he realized he had bathed with his shock collar around his neck. A little red dot flashed on occation. He blinked once. How come Minnie or Angeal never brought it up? Cloud put his hand around the collar, seizing it tightly. He wanted his reminder of his days in the labs to go away. He never wanted to remember them again, and this damn collar wasn't going to help! He used all of his strength, which wasn't much, and tugged at the collar. He felt jolts of electricity zap through his body, but he didn't care. This collar was coming off!

He tugged harder, and the intencity of the electricity jumped dramatically. It caused the blonde to clentch his teeth and hold back a grunted cry of pain. He refused to let go of the collar, even as the electricity began to singe and burn his hands. He tugged again, and the voltage bit back fiercly, crackling into his skull and making his arms shudder and shake. Cloud let out a choked cry of pain and kept tearing at the device, that was also putting up a fight.

His stomach began to twist in knots and slam against the wall of his abdominal cavity from the pure energy running all throughout his body. He felt his heart speeding up the higher the electricity's intencity was upped. He kept tugging with all his might, and the collar kept shocking with all of its' power. Cloud cried out loudly in pain and his hands began to tremble terribly. He knew if he didn't get it off soon, it would kill him.

Heavy footsteps began to hurry down the hall. One of them men must have heard his scream and came rushing. He tugged even harder, causing the collar's power to go out to maximum and unleash volts upon volts of raw energy all throughout his body, blood, and organs. Cloud could feel the electricity zap into his hands, and he knew they were burning.

Then suddenly, the pain stopped. When the fear assosiated from pure pain wore off, he could see Angeal, gripping him by the wrists tightly, and forcing his arms forward, away from the collar. That mechanical device won this battle. The blonde felt fresh tears pouring from his eyes from all the raw energy that had suddenly dispersed.

"I had a feeling that was a shock collar. Hojo has no morals." The older man said.

He released Cloud's wrists, and they just fell to the blonde's sides weakly. The small teen was trying so hard not to fall, but his knees buckled from under him and he lurched forward. Angeal reacted quick enough and caught the frail boy before he hit the tile of the bathroom.

"Come on, let's get you lying down." The older ravenette said softly, as if the blonde was just tired.

He assisted Cloud in getting back to the couch safely, and he helped ease him into laying down. The teen's eyes never left Angeal's, and they only did when the younger boy known as Zack walked up to pause beside his mentor.

"What happened to him?" The younger ravenette asked.

"Hojo put a shock collar on him and he tried to remove it with brute force." Angeal responded as he walked out of the blonde's line of sight. "Keep him company for a bit okay Zack? I need to grab a couple of things." He added as he disappeared further down the hall, past the bathroom.

The teen scratched the back of his head, looked behind him, and grabbed a chair sitting idly in the corner of the living room. He pulled it up in front of the couch and took a seat, observing Cloud's frail and malnourished frame before locking his blue eyes with the other set of blue eyes.

"So, what's your name blondie?" Zack asked a little awkwardly.

The ravenette was still trying to shake the earlier image of the blonde hunch over, dripping wet, with nothing but a towel covering his lower half. Even the thought caused him to blush slightly. He wished he could unsee that so he could have a normal conversation with the kid.

"Cloud." The blonde said, his eyes still locked onto Zack's.

"Cloud huh? That's uh, interesting?" The teen said with a slight shrug.

"Thanks, I suppose. It wasn't my choice, it was Lucrecia's." The blonde said, blinking once, eyes still gazing into the other teen's.

"Lucrecia? So does that mean you're her son?" The ravenette asked a little confused. The girl was an assiastant for Hojo, and only a minor twenty-five years old. There was no way that she could have had a child that look well into his teenage years.

But then his doubts were washed away when he heard Cloud chuckle a little bit. In fact, that chuckle caused any rational thinking in the ravenette to leave him, and it left him with a blank slate for his thoughts.

"No, she's not my mom. I don't have any parents." The blonde said, although his tone deflated slightly, and his eyes glanced away from Zack to look down at his boots instead.

"Wait, how do you NOT have parents? Everyone has parents." The ravenette said, thoroughly confused. His eyebrows arched and his eyes glimmered in the dim lighting.

Cloud's eyes looked back up at Zack, but they looked so sad now. As if they were filled to the brim with grief.

"I wasn't born. I was created. I landed Hojo to be head scientist in Shinra. I am his experiment. I am his toy. I allowed him to play God..." Cloud listed, his voice rising with a sudden flare of shaky intencity. It seemed as if he was about to cry. "I don't have parents. So I guess that means not everybody has parents." He finished, his eyes brimming with tears now.

"Uh, hey, don't cry, I was just throwing that out there, I didn't mean it I-...Uh..." Zack stammered, starting to wring his hands together and his knee to start bouncing. Cloud realized that Zack hadn't said that to hurt him, so he sat up, his mood changing completely.

"I, I'm sorry Zack. You were just trying to talk. I get it." The blonde replied, just as nervous at the ravenette in front of him.

Their eyes met for a moment, followed by the flushing of their cheeks from sheer embarrasment.

"Uh, Anyways, how old are you Cloud?" Zack asked, switching the awkward topic. It seemed to work because the two both relaxed and went back to their usual moods from before.

"I'm fifteen. What about you?" The blonde asked as he layed back down.

"Sixteen." The raven haired teen spoke with a soft smile.

"So, that makes you older...Right?" Cloud guessed.

He had to use his MovingBox, or elevator, logic from earlier. Where the numbers corresponded to the floors of Shinra. Perhaps the numbers of ages were like that, the higher the numbers, the older the person, and the lower the numbers, the younger the person.

"Yeah, that's right." Zack said with a nod of his head.

"So how old is Angeal?" Cloud asked, looking to the hallway where said man had yet to return from.

"Oh, he's twenty-five." The ravenette said with a smirk.

Cloud's eyes widened and his mouth gaped open. "Oh, he's an old man!" The blonde breathlessly exclaimed.

Zack had to choke back some laughter on that remark. He slapped his hands over his mouth to silence his muffled giggles. The blonde noticed the other teen trying not to laugh, and for some reason, it caused Cloud to burst out laughing, in return, caused Zack to burst out into laughter. They were chuckling, giggling, and sometimes snorting for a couple of minutes before the roar of laughter died down.

"You're alright Cloud. You're alright." Zack said with a big grin. The blonde returned the smile.

"Okay, I'm not that old." The voice of Angeal chided as he returned from the hallway with a few blankets and pillows wrapped up in his arms.

"Hey, Cloud said it, not me." Zack defended playfully.

The blonde giggled in responce.

"Sit up for a minute, will you Cloud?" Angeal asked as he stood beside the chair that his student was occupying.

The teen sat up and the older man placed two pillows against the arm of the couch. The blonde quickly flopped himself down on the pillows with a big smile on his face. Angeal tossed two blankets over Cloud's small frame.

"There. Why don't you get some rest while I finish making dinner?" The man suggested.

"Uh-huh!" The teen said with a big smile.

He hunkered down further into the soft leather of the couch. He tucked the blanket around his body and nestled his head into the two pillows. Within seconds, he was already out like a light. Angeal went back into the kitchen to finish prepping the food, and Zack followed.

"Hey Angeal. I've noticed something about Cloud." The younger ravenette brought up.

"What about him?" The older man asked as he began to mold some hamburger meat into the propper shape.

"He's really skinny. He looks like he's anorexic or something. I saw all of his ribs Ang'." Zack said softly as he shoved his hands into his pant pockets.

"What do you expect Zack? He came from Hojo's labs. The boy had a shock collar around his neck if you didn't see it earlier." The older man informed as he finished molding the raw meat and began to add seasonings.

It was silent between the two at that moment. Only the ticking of the kitchen clock, and Angeal seasoning the now shaped hamburger patties with different spices and herbs.

"If he came from the labs, wouldn't one of Hojo's assiastants be out searching for him?" Zack finally said, deciding to break the silence that was corroding the air like a thick poisonous cloud of gas.

"Who knows? Maybe Hojo wanted him to escape. He seemed extremely sheltered to me. Cloud told me he was in the labs his whole life." Angeal responded, turning on a small grill on the counter next to the one he was prepping the meat on.

"All his life?" Zack asked himself.

Then, he suddenly remembered something. He was touring the Shinra building with his dad when he was only four. They stopped by Hojo's labs because his father needed the scientist to fill out some paperwork. Zack had seen a little blonde haired boy, huddled in the corner and hugging his knees.

Could that have been Cloud?  
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_A/N: Wow, this was definatly one of my shorter chapters ^^; I figured this would be a good place to end it for now. Well, don't forget to drop a review and tell me what you think! Every review is like an ounce of motivation! :)_

_Anyhow, toodles until the next chapter!_


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